Sunday, July 21, 2019

Watch On Netflix: Stranger Things 3 (2019)

There’s just no avoiding Stranger Things. When a new season releases on Netflix, you run towards the Upside Down arms open – Mindflaying domination over Hawkins, Indiana be damned.

The third season of the popular series kicked off with another edition of Nancy Drew adventures for our heroic misfits: Steve, Robin, Erica, and Dustin investigate a mysterious code at the new Starcourt Mall. On the other side of town, Eleven with Mike, Lucas, and Will try to discover why the Upside Down is having a sadistic affect on Max's brother Billy. Meanwhile Nancy and Jonathan struggle with their new responsibilities after high school, as Joyce and Hopper discover that the Russians are coming (or have never truly left).

If that seems like a lot to read, it might not come as a surprise that it’s also a lot to digest while watching the newest episodes. As the third chapter in the Stranger Things saga, the series finds a balance in righting and recycling some of its previous flaws.

As a precaution, if you haven't seen Stranger Things 3, read at your own risk. This post contains spoilers!

Friday, July 19, 2019

7 Fascinating Reveals About Avengers: Endgame at San Diego Comic Con 2019

Avengers: Endgame San Diego Comic Con 2019
Avengers: Endgame is one of the biggest movies of all-time. Since its release earlier this summer, much has been speculated about its complex time travel plot, the arcs of favorite characters, and the start of a new phase in the MCU. Directors Anthony and Joe Russo, as well as the screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, held their own panels in the famous Hall H soundstage. By discussing the unique approach of making the most colossal Marvel Cinematic Universe movie to date, we learned some fascinating behind-the-scenes intel about how the foursome created the movie. Here are 7 Reveals About Avengers: Endgame at San Diego Comic Con.

If you haven't seen Avengers: Endgame, read at your own risk. This post contains spoilers!

Friday, July 12, 2019

Katie Says Goodbye (2016) Strives to Find Meaning Out Of Misery

Katie (Olivia Cooke) dreams of leaving her past behind to move to San Francisco and attend beauty school. While pulling double-shifts as a waitress where her tips are wasted by her alcoholic mother, the seventeen-year-old supplements her savings as a prostitute. As she reserves every dime she can for greener pastures, falling in love with an ex-convict Bruno (Christopher Abbott) spirals her life out of control.

Everyone in Katie Says Goodbye has to forge their way in a claustrophobic nowhere town in the middle of the desert. There’s little to do for its residents except serve travelers on the road, drink, have sex – either for fun or as a gig. Left to fend for themselves with the basic necessities, Katie makes the best of what she has always looking for the silver lining. A few glimpses at her day-to-day life of monotonous waitressing, and excitedly gleaming at passing trains offers no rhyme or reason as to why she remains abundantly hopeful, and yet the film lovingly sets up this infectious charm only to gradually deconstruct it.

Sunday, July 7, 2019

Hugh Jackman World Tour Was The Greatest Show

When I saw tickets for Hugh Jackman's world tour go on sale last December, I didn't know anything except that I had to be there. I didn't know how I was going to go to the arena where the show was  held, what the arena's layout was, if I bought tickets that had a decent view, or if I'd have money to get a hotel for the night. #mydreamsarebiggerthanmybankaccount I definitely didn't know that six months later, I'd save up enough to attend, but also be as sick as one can possibly get without going to the hospital the day of. As sure as I was the day I bought the tickets, I knew I had to be there.

With a relentless fever, drippy nose, burning lungs, and not being able to move without sweating through my clothes, I WAS LIVING at this concert. Both literally and figuratively. I'm still not 100% well as I'm writing this, but at least I'm not Patient Zero right now.

From Broadway and movies to his own triumphs and personal interests, Jackman's show is a showstopping combination of who he is as an actor on stage and in film as well as a kid who had a big dream to entertain. Just as the world tour is called, it's all about The Man, The Music, The Show. And whatta man whatta man whatta man he is, I mean music, I mean show, it was.

Tuesday, June 25, 2019

Booksmart (2019) Is A Genuine Revelation

Booksmart Movie Review
Photo Credit: United Artists Releasing
Every generation has a coming-of-age movie that speaks to them - Say Anything, The Breakfast Club, The Perks of Being A Wallflower, Mean Girls. Joining a solid pack of recent flicks exploring girls' complex emotions and moving into the real world - Lady Bird, Eighth Grade, The Miseducation of Cameron Post - Olivia Wilde's directorial debut with Booksmart explores even the bookworms don't know it all.

From earning admission into Yale to doing charity work in Botswana, best friends Molly (Beanie Feldstein) and Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) have high aspirations for themselves and their classmates. When Molly discovers that the slackers have also leveled up into amazing post-high school opportunities without sacrificing fun, she encourages Amy to squeeze four years of partying into the night before graduation. 


Wednesday, June 19, 2019

Rocketman's (2019) Imagination Almost Burns Itself Out

Rocketman movie review
Paramount Pictures
Biopics tend to play it safe. They're afraid to veer too off from presenting the facts by the books and  rests on its laurels about whoever the story is based on. Given the freedom to delve into Elton John's colorful and bold life, Rocketman explore more than thirty years of the iconic musician's life. Combining elements of music and story, director Dexter Fletcher's goes all in, to the point that you wish he reeled it back just a little.

Growing up with his cold father and self-absorbed mother, a young Elton John finds refuge, imagination, and identity in his musical gifts. The lack of love he didn't received as a child, homophobia, and toxic relationships turns into a devastating recipe for substance abuse as he rises in the music industry. (Read the full review below)

Monday, June 17, 2019

Watching Game of Thrones For The First Time

Binge-watching Game of Thrones For The First Time
If anyone told me eight years ago I’d binge-watch Game of Thrones months ahead of its series finale, I honestly wouldn’t believe them. I was never a fan to brag about not watching a popular show, as if ultra-cool fans who weren't interested in the series act like they deserve some sort of medal for living off-the-grid. Game of Thrones, in the beginning and its peak, didn’t appeal to me because The Walking Dead was ruling my life, and after trying to watch one episode, I just didn’t connect. Giving it another chance, and having been 98% unaware of its biggest moments, felt like a fun challenge. And if there is one thing that I accept more in life than anything else, and what I actually think I'm decent at, it's live-tweeting a whole series on a ridiculous time limit.

But that's exactly how I decided to ring in 2019.